Cat misery in the industrial area: This is how the Association of Cat Lovers wrote a post on its homepage that tells what happened in April of that year in the Unterschleißheim industrial area. The association based in Grünwald had been informed that a cat had given birth to five young in a hedgehog house. The weather was bad. The animal rights activists went out at night. It took days for them to find the mother cat and four small kittens. Two were in a cellar shaft. One was dead. Since then, dozens of other wild cats have appeared in the area around Röntgenstrasse. A problem, as Marius Zisselsberger from the Association of Cat Friends says. They get sick, have parasites and multiply uncontrollably. “They are not wild animals.”
In Unterschleißheim in particular, it may surprise one or the other that there are stray cats that no one takes care of locally. There is an animal welfare association, the chairman of which has earned a reputation as a mother cat over the years, who takes care of her darlings in a small house “Am Weiher”, pats them and, if necessary, fights with her colleagues like a lioness for her world with animals. For some, Christine Förster, who used to be a member of the Association of Cat Friends in Grünwald, even went too far with her love for cats.
In April, when the misery with the cats unfolded, Förster was still in office. In the meantime, however, she has resigned from the board of directors with others. Hermann Meyer was elected as the new chairman at a meeting in early September. Hermann Meyer is a retired veterinarian. He was active in research and, like his wife, the Green City Councilor Lissy Meyer, wants to completely revamp the work of the association. The association wants to continue to take care of stray cats and found animals. There is an animal welfare telephone and feeding stations are supplied in the industrial area. But animal welfare is now to be understood more broadly. In a letter that is being sent to the members these days, he writes, “Animal welfare plays a much bigger role” than taking care of dogs and cats. The association should take a position on keeping conditions, animal transport and torture breeding. Health and the environment are topics, as is the “influence of meat consumption on climate change”.
Found animals from the city have long been coming to a rescue station in Neufahrn-Mintraching.
(Photo: Jan A. Staiger)
It is difficult to understand why the animal welfare association was not there in spring and summer. Christine Förster cannot be reached by phone, and people she knew back then do not want to establish contact. In any case, it was a time when the 300-member association was in a crisis and some people in the city no longer had confidence in the association. Anita Dobner runs a dog hotel in Unterschleißheim. She would have had many good reasons to work with the animal welfare association. Dogs are often given to her and not picked up, she says. But she compares the club’s home, known as Agneshaus, to “Fort Knox” and says that she wanted to found her own club because of problems with the old board.
When the Grünwalder became active because of the cats in Unterschleißheim, the animal welfare association was at odds with the city. In October 2020, the city terminated the found animal agreement with the association because it no longer saw the conditions for animal-friendly accommodation in the Agneshaus. In June 2021, the lease for the small and ailing house owned by the city, in which Förster kept animals until the end, expired. It was never an animal shelter, of course, and it also did not meet the less stringent criteria of an animal sanctuary where dogs, cats or birds stay for a transition. Much is only now known about the dispute over the Agneshaus. The wrestling attracted attention far beyond the city limits. The chairwoman of the Bavarian Animal Welfare Association and her deputy visited the Agneshaus twice with other experts to examine it. According to reports, the judgment about the structural condition was quite clearly negative.
Found animals from Unterschleißheim have long been coming to the rescue station in Neufahrn-Mintraching, which has only recently been built and is also being worked on by permanent staff. Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) and city councilors recently got an idea of the modern building there. Böck says that “new insights” have been gained. The cooperation with the animal protection association Freising is going well. The construction of our own animal shelter in Unterschleißheim is inconceivable without another municipality as a partner. The numbers don’t show that. Only eleven found animals were counted in 2020.
Want to put animal welfare in Unterschleißheim with its aging rescue station, the so-called Agneshaus, on a broader footing: the two new club chairmen Herrmann and Lissy Meyer.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The city of Unterschleißheim is relying on a new beginning with the new board of directors in the animal welfare association. Mayor Böck says they now want to “keep an eye on animal welfare together”. The association is currently clearing the Agneshaus. Böck expects a demolition. The association has meanwhile been provided with an office in the old town hall on Bezirksstrasse. Feeding points for stray cats are also supplied in the industrial area around Röntgenstrasse. The publication of a brochure is planned. You want to deal with rook colonies, beavers in the castle canal, toads in Lustheim and free-roaming dogs in the mountain forest. They also want to inform about the sheep and the maintenance of the landscape in Hochmuttig.
The cat lovers from Grünwald are still looking after around 20 free-living cats in Unterschleißheim these days. Animals have been neutered, says Marius Zisselsberger, feeding stations have been set up and wildlife cameras have been installed. Employees in companies in the industrial park looked at the animals so that no martens or foxes made the sleeping places unsafe. Many do not know, says Zisselsberger, that animal welfare is largely a private matter and voluntary work. The association spent more than 5,000 euros on the cats in Unterschleißheim. With the newly structured animal welfare association there, the mission of the Grünwalder could now come to an end. Zisselsberger would like more team spirit and more professionalism in dealing with authorities for the welfare of animals in the animal rights activist scene.
The animal welfare phone of the city’s animal welfare association (0162/32 29-555) is still in charge of the third chairwoman, Marianne Rößler. The second chairman is Sandra Rosocha, secretary Caroline Schwarz, treasurer Lissy Meyer.